Follow the yellow brick road................

Sunday is the day I took sister Mary to meet her girls who will take her to her home.After driving for about 3 hours we are now at the beginning of the Yellow Brick Road.  I have this particular picture in a lot of my albums.  I never fail to honk  when I pass it, but usually stop and take a picture with whoever is with me.  All the husbands are framed by this back drop except #1 and #2. Reason for that being I did not even know Colorado existed until the long, legged guitar picker told me it was here.  He tried to lure me, but I just laughed.

 And here we start the last leg of the trip.  Daughter said we would not miss the truck stop; we would see it!  She was right.  Had she said an ant hill, we would have seen that also!  LOL  I lived many years on this flat land.  Kenny used to call me a Flat Lander.  He was so cute.  No matter which way I point the camera it is pretty much the same view.

 You can drive really fast cause there is not a thing to slow you down.  The highway is as straight as a string and goes for miles without the scenery being broken by a house, field of cattle, damn near anything.  Got the cruise control on and just kicked back coasting.  Probably warbling along with Johnny or Charlie or one of my other boys.  The thrill of the  open road!

 Now, here is the favorite part of the drive, the Welcome to Colorado sign which you can not read because I was too far away and going way to fast to focus!  (Little side note here:  I drive a Ford Focus. Do that cause it gets phenomenal gas mileage.) But the sign is up there....trust me. (snicker)

Before I leave this country I do want to put in a plug for the fair state of Kansas.  I lived many years on these flat plains and there is a lot to be said for the view.  You can look in any direction and see for miles.  You know where the river runs, because there are trees there.  In the summer the wheat fields are spectacular.  Oh, and signs of spring on the way down!  The winter wheat is starting to turn the fields green.  I saw at least 5 separate fields with baby calves.

The sunrise is beautiful and lasts for about 45 minutes as does the sunset.  In the evening the shadows start growing very long and if you are a little kid, you know that it is time to head for home or the dark is going to catch you.  In Colorado, the sun just sort of pops up and then in the evening it falls behind the mountains like that ball at Times Square on New Years Eve.  Those are the two things I miss most about Kansas.  Those and the humidity and the black ice.  (Little sarcasm there.)

Oh, but here is the view I most wanted to see!  Coming up the highway headed West, I noticed the sun was starting to set behind the mountains.  Oh, it was spectacular!  Having been in Colorado for over thirty years, I have learned that this was not going to last long.  I stopped beside the road, pulled out my trusty camera and snapped this picture for posterity.  Thirty minutes later I pulled into my drive in total darkness.  I do not get to see many pretty sunsets out here, but I think this one was well worth the wait.

So here I am in my very quiet house.  Sister Mary is home in hers.  I know you girls are reading this, so I want you to know first of all that one of her pill containers (with 7 boxes) is here on the counter.  I have not been down to her room to do the final shake down, although the Daisy dog is waiting for her to come to bed.  There may be more down there. 

What else you need to know, is that we may not have done a lot while she was here, but what we did, we did well!  I enjoyed my visit with your mother, my sister, and we laughed about some of the things of which you know nothing!  We had a life before all you little kids cropped up and both of us still remember that time.  Some memories never fade.  So enjoy my sister while you can and remember,  we are all traveling the same road and headed the same place.  North, South, East or West.  I still think, Heaven is best.

Aunt Lou

Sister Mary at the half way point on the journey home!

Well, here goes Mary with her two daughters!  She has more than this, but the other one is in North Carolina.  She also has a son, but he is home in Hutch.  This is Tina on the left and Dorothy on the right.  Mary is in the middle. 

 I do think she is most happy to be going home, although I did tell her I will not be there to cook and she could very well starve to death.  At least she will not have the chicken and home made noodles, Black Walnut Ice Cream, home made cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies and that stuff.  When she started crying, I told her I was teasing!  I am a good sister!

 Now here we are in front of the Truck Plaza outside Garden City, Kansas.  Left to right is Tina, Mary, Me , and Dorothy.  Let me digress here for just a moment.  We tend to get a name in this family and then wear it completely out using it.  Tina is named after mother and Mary.  Dorothy is named after Mary's mother in law, but we also have a sister Dorothy.  I had a sister in law Dorothy.  I have a daughter Dona, a sister Donna, and a sister in law Dona.  You get the picture?

Oh, speaking of Dona, here is my daughter Patty on the left and Dona on the right.  Behind Patty is her daughter (my grand daughter) September, who was born in November.

So here you have pictures from the mini reunion at the Truck Plaza.  Mary should be waking up in her little house this morning.  She is gonna miss me, but such is life.  We had a very good time while she was here.  The girls asked what we did and we said, "Nothing!"  I do, however think we did something.  I know we went to Beulah which Mary likes to do.  We had lunch at the airport with Tim a couple times.  Lyn brought a grand baby by a couple times for us to play with.  It snowed and Mary slipped and kind of busted her butt.  I hit her in the head with the car door.  We went to church.  Had company several times for supper  or dessert.  We went out to eat.  Yeah, I think nothing may have been an inadequate answer!

So here I set all alone with no Mary.  Guess I will put my new to me Charlie Pride on the turntable and hop on the tread mill and go for a little walk before I have to do the chores.  Tomorrow I am going to take you on the drive to Garden City and back.  You will love those miles and miles of flat country!  Gonna do it anyway!

Miss you, sister Mary!  Remember if you get hungry, lonely or just need a change of scenery, I am still here in Colorado and if I keep up the house payments I will still have your bed!   Good Night, John Boy!  Good night, Mary Belle!  (click)

I have a place for you to go!  Have fun there.          My really big store!

50 years ago or was it yesterday?

Yesterday  marked the 50 year anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy being inaugurated as the 35th president of our fair land.  The newscaster noted that only 30% of the people alive today would remember that event.  I am among the chosen few!  I realize this dates me, but oh, well.  Facts are facts.

I remember so clearly that period of time.  It was amazing that a Roman Catholic of Irish descent was elected to the highest office of the land.  If I recall, he is the only Roman Catholic to ever hold the Presidency.  Correct me if I am wrong.

He was the most drop dead gorgeous thing and his wife was beautiful and every inch a lady.  Caroline was cute as a button and rode a horse named Macaroni.  As I recall, son John was born after the election and prior to the inauguration.  "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!"  " The torch is passed to a new generation."  "Tear down this wall!"  "I am a Berliner!"  Every word the man uttered was carved in stone!

He was a family man all the way and every day.  I stood with millions of other young women with our noses pressed to the window watching the whirling couples dip and sway in a land called Camelot.  We all knew what and where Camelot was because John and Jackie taught us.  We learned about touch football from the Kennedy's on vacation in Hyannis Port.   From 1959 to 1963 we dreamed a dream and we loved our government!

We loved our government and tried to be good people.  We could envision a future for our children that had not been dreamed of before JFK threw down the gauntlet and his beautiful wife cheered him on to victory.  In that short period of time, I married and had two children.  I prayed as John and Jackie stood vigil over the crib of their premature son in 1963 and wept as they buried the tiny coffin. 

And I stood with my second child in my arms as I watched the motorcade wind through the streets of Dallas.  I watched as Jackie in her pink dress splattered with blood tried to help her fallen hero.  I flinched as Jack Ruby fired a point blank shot into the stomach of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who had taken our dream away.

It was a magical time.  It was a time of hope and aspirations that had never been seen before and will never be seen again.  Who knows what the future would have been for this man with the funny accent and his perfect family, so clouded with tragedy and triumph?  I do not know.  What I do know is I am so blessed that I am part of this 30%.  It is a period of my life that gave me hope to make it to this point in my life.

I look at our government now and I look at how little respect we have for our chosen officials.  Fresh after the mess in Tuscon I look back at how we treat our heroes.  One person, whether it be Lee Harvey Oswald,  James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, or the guy in Tuscon, can wreak so much havoc and destroy so many dreams.  I do not know the solution, well I do, but no one wants to hear it.  It is in a song that goes like this...."What the world needs now, is love, sweet love!  That's the only thing we have too little of." 

That is all I know.  The Camelot years are gone, but not forgotten by 30% of the nation today.   I only hope I never forget the euphoria that gripped our nation at that time!  I hope I never quit clinging to the dream of a better life and time.  I do not want to ever give up the optimism that I cultivated at that time.  Camelot will always live in this woman's mind!

Martin Luther King Jr. day.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  There will be no mail.  Banks are probably closed.  School is out.  But how many of you reading this know or care what went on in connection with Martin Luther King Jr.    I  do. Do I remember the dates?  No, I do not.  Do I remember specific incidents?  No I do not.  I remember in generalities.  Selma, as a fleeting memory.  The 3 civil rights workers that were murdered and buried in a dam or something.  As an injustice.  The integration of Little Rock, Arkansas as something I was glad was not happening here.  Man's inhumanity to man was at that point in history at the pinnacle of injustice, hatred, and every vile word that comes to the front of my mind.

I remember being incensed, but I do not recall feeling empathy.  They were, after all,  only niggers.  They had been born as niggers and they still were, only now they were different.  I remember thinking, somewhere in the recesses of my mind that these people (?) could have feelings.  For many, many years, I had been aware of their existence, but they were not a part of my life.  I did not interact with them at all, because there were none in my small town.  But now here they were, angry and wanting civil rights.  What was civil rights?  Hell, I had no idea, nor did I care.  I just knew that black people were acting up and it was affecting the whole world.  My world.

Then at some point in time I had a thought.  What if that were me?  What if I was black?  Would my friends spit on me?  Sure they would.  Could I go to school?  No I could not.  I watched the kids going to Little Rock and wondered why they were doing that.  I watched the white kids throwing rocks and bottles at them.  I could not understand that either.  I listened to Martin Luther King Jr. speeches and they made sense to me.  I was not raised in a racist home.  Mom and dad were more concerned with putting food on the table then who went to school in Little Rock, Arkansas.

I remember.  I remember the White Only signs in restaurants and on bathroom doors.  I remember Medgar Evers, the Black Panthers, Rosa Parks and I tremble with shame and rage at the whole thing.  We, proud citizens of the United States of America, brought black people to the shores of this great country in chains and yokes and forced them to labor in the hot sun in fields and kitchens of the aristocrats.  They were niggers.  They were not allowed to marry, they were sold and families broken and shattered.  What were we thinking?  What justification did our forefathers offer as a reason for this?  We killed a man who tried to set them free.

For years they suffered in silence and then came another saviour.  John Kennedy strove for civil rights and we killed him. Martin Luther King Jr.  He did it.  He freed them.  And again we killed him.  Our answer to everything is to kill some body.  We now have Civil Rights laws in place and the second class citizens that suffered so many years are treated as equal.  Not separate but equal, as once was proposed.  This is a lot like don't ask don't tell.  Who will we kill when that one is repealed?

I am not a very smart woman, but I do know right from wrong.  We have done lots of things in this country to make me scratch my head and wonder, but you know what?  Back in that era there was a lot of hate.  Two sides and both thinking that their side was right.  Emotions ran high.  But it all worked out.  I am a quilt maker.  Sometimes a piece does not want to go in where it is supposed to and I have found if I tug a little here and a little more there, pretty soon it is in there right where it goes and it looks very good.  Same thing happened in the civil rights movement.  I watch Oprah.  I saw some of the white kids who were there in Little Rock and some of the black kids.  It is many years later and they have come to terms and faced their demons. 

That is what life is all about.  Just like the first time they flipped the switch and a light came on.  Bet that scared hell out of some one.  I think humans by very nature of being human want to do what is right.  We just have a hard time figuring out what right is, but when we get the big picture we are the best in the world at enforcing it.  Lincoln did not die in vain.  Nor did JFK, or Martin Luther King Jr.  We have come full circle, but there are more circles ahead of us. 

My favorite quote of Martin Luther King Jr. is not from the I Have a Dream Speech, but this one:

"In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."    Martin Luther King Jr.

Sister Mary, the boy and girl, and Robin who I have known for years.

This is a happy little family outing.  Since it has been freezing cold since my sister Mary got here and snow is refusing to melt, we are becoming home bound.  So I saw on the weather that today was going to get up over the freezing mark and decided we should make a break!   I had to go give blood for my annual physical that I have every year and a half or so.  That meant I could not eat or drink till that chore was out of the way.

I thought it might be fun to meet the kids at Souper! Salad.  Bret is very fond of the Chicken Enchilada soup in there.  He actually will eat a little salad and thereby confuse his digestive system into thinking it got something healthy.  Amanda actually will eat a little salad and a vegetable on occasion without being threatened.

 So there are the three of them.  Mary ate two bowls of soup and a small salad, but what she is working on here is a bowl of ice cream with sprinkles and oreo cookies.   Amanda had to take off her jacket so she would not flip food on it.  We do know how to enjoy our food.

Now here is the surprise.  See this lovely lady?  No, not me!  The one on my left, your right.  That is Robin.  Now I know this means little to you, but she has worked here for many years.  That is not all.  I knew this young lady when she was 15 years old and attending Central High School here in Pueblo.  At that time she and my daughter, Dona, were friends.  As I recall, they were both kind of ornery, but not as ornery as some.  They did like to go to concerts.  Robin was dating a boy who actually had a car.  I think they later married, but I could not say for sure.  I do know she has some kids and a couple are still at home.

Every time I go to the Souper! Salad and run into Robin I vow I will get her phone number and I think I did once, but Lord only knows where that went.  I am going to get organized soon, very soon.  Right now, I am going to call Dona and see if she remembers Robin, but as I set here and think about this, I think I have already done that.  I think I do that every time I see Robin.  Got to be careful here or my kids will think I am getting senile.

So if you have never been to Souper! Salad  you should venture in to one.  I am pretty sure they are a national chain.  The salad bar is always crisp and cold with any addition you want.  The  four kinds of soup are hot and tasty.  Baked white and sweet potatoes.  An assortment of fresh baked breads.  Spaghetti, chili and pizza.  Lots of fruit, strawberry short cake.  Oh, I am getting fat thinking about it.

So, now it is night, and sister Mary is off to bed.  Bret and Amanda went some where for some reason.  My house is very quiet.  Scratch that!  They are home again and having a little discussion.  My little eyes are getting very heavy.  I need to go delete a bunch of stuff on the other side of this computer.  Think the last time I looked I had over 3000 emails in the old mail. 

So if you are in this fair city stop out at the Souper! Salad and see Robin.  Tell her Lou sent you and then give her a wink.  That should drive her nuts!   She is a very nice lady and she works very hard for her money, so be nice to her.  Thanks.



Today is 1/11/11 and I feel the need to say something special.

When I looked at that my first thought was a lottery ticket.  Now I know people were all excited and doing something special on 1/1/11.  But look at that.  It is special.  Oh, and I think November will bring us 11/11/11.   And September 9/10/11.  You know what I think?  I think every day is special!

Any morning I wake up on the top side of the sod, I consider a very good day.  Usually some one or something will come along and make me rethink that, but most days are good!  Now today I woke up thinking about some one I know who wears a lot of makeup.  I have seen her apply this and it is no easy chore and is very time consuming.  I do not do it.  I did for a few weeks when I was living in Liberal, Kansas.  I was 26 at the time.  I remember it clearly. 

I have been blessed with a very unique skin that requires little care and has never been cursed with a pimple.  Course after a few days of smearing that crap around on my face, I got one.  So now, it is au naturelle (or however you spell that).   But, back to my friend.  First there is white stuff under the eyes to cover a dark circle that might be there.  Now I am not sure what order this all happens in, but during the construction of this face, there will be liquid something,  powder, red stuff on the cheeks, purple stuff on the eye lids, lines around the eyes, dark stuff in the eyebrows, black stuff on the eye lashes and then comes a curling iron to curl them. 

Now, I know this is a lot of work and I do not have the proper sequence of events that just took place,  but I can tell you the end result is a face that is without flaw and a perpetual deer in the head light look that will not leave until it all comes off at night.  At least I think that is when it happens.  I have not been around to see the coming off part.  I do know the putting on part takes well over an hour.  I like my routine....

Get nekkid.  Step in the shower.  Grab shampoo bottle and lather hair.  Smear a little soap around.  Brush teeth while rinsing.  Water off, dry, deodorant, pick through the hair, dress from the bottom up.  Total elapsed time: 7 minutes.  I have the theory that if I do happen to see anyone I know today they will not remember tomorrow what I looked like today.  They will remember forever what I said, but not what color shirt I was wearing.  And that is the premise of my life!

Now, I think I digressed again.  But here is my theory on that...it is not the first time and it will not be the last time!  The date today is just another day on my march to that big blog site in the sky!  So I fully intend to live this day with the same gusto I lived the 26,000 (give or take) before.  Reminds me of a song......" You got to give a little, take a little , and let your poor heart break a little!  That's the story of, that's the glory of love! "

Have a good one!

Arggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! More cold and snow!!!!!!!

The Arctic front is back!!  Right now it is 12 degrees and falling.  I am already frozen.  I never lost the last snow.  It melted a little here on my sloped driveway that I have to walk across to get to the car port and then quickly froze into a sheet of the slickest ice I have encountered since I left Kansas!  As I recall those days, when winter came it first rained.  Then that changed to freezing rain.  This left a sheet of ice on everything known as "black ice".  You have not lived until you have driven 200 or so miles on that. 

Black ice is just what the name implies.  Inevitably this phenomena would occur right before I wanted to make the trip from Garden City back to Hutchinson.  Course  who ever heard of postponing a trip?  Well, yeah, that and the fact that the ice would be there until Spring so why fight it?  Then it would snow and the temperatures would fall and 15 degrees below was a good day.  But you will recall that I left Kansas. 

Now I know you think Colorado is the land of beautiful snow falls and skiing and that sort of thing, but what you do not know is this......I live in a hole.  I am here in Pueblo where it never rains, temperatures are moderate and the sun shines every day.  Except of course, when it does not!  Give us an Albuquerque Low and we measure the snowfall in feet or the rain in gallons.  And then there is that little thing called an Arctic Front that comes creeping down from God only knows where and drops the bottom right out of the thermometers.

So back to the sloped drive and the sheet of ice.  I myself have found it easier to go out the back door, across the deck, down the side walk, out the gate, across the back lot, crawl over the front fence, stumble through the rose bushes and exit into the car port.  Most of the time I have the presence of mind to have my keys with me.  But occasionally I exit the front door.  Side walk is clear (Thanks to my back breaking work and Bret sleeping late cause he does not do a good job of shoveling.) so I can get up a little speed, lock my knees when I hit the ice patch, glide to the bottom and stop suddenly when I hit the dry gravel which marks the neighbors drive.  Then it is just a matter of turning right, walking spraddle legged and holding on to the trash can, water hydrant and springing forward to the first pole in the car port.  I could never do that sober!

Had a man stop buy last evening to pick up some thread.  Course he parked right in the middle of the ice patch I laughingly call "Widow Maker".  I was happy to see he had been around enough to have mastered the spraddle legged walk which I also laughingly call "Widow Maker".  When it came time for him to leave I told him I  would watch him to his car to make sure he did not fall.  He, of course, thought I would pick him up if he did.  I told him, "No, but I think I can slide you over to the car port and you can grab hold of something and pull yourself up."  Luckily he made it to his vehicle and all was well.

Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, I woke up this morning and what do I have?  Got another 6-7 inches of fresh snow out there.  I have no idea where I left that damn snow shovel.  I think it is with the sledge hammer I need to break the ice on the pond.  I expect they are in the tin shed which has yet another drift in front of it.  If life were fair, things would be different.  I know where I went wrong.  See, a couple weeks ago I went to have my tires rotated and the little guy at Peerless (whom I love) told me, " Gee, Lou, your tread is about gone.  Want to take care of that now?"  And I in my lackadaisical manner did my usual procrastination thing.  I love it when I do that! ( Sarcasm, just another service I offer.)

Ok, so I was wrong about it never snowing here.  If this were the first time I was wrong you might be able to cackle, but seems to me specialty.  That and dumplings that do not have a hard ball of dough in the middle.  So now you have a good day and think about poor old Lou out here in Colorado freezing to death and driving around on bald tires. ( I would insert a happy face here if I had any idea how to do that!)